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Modern
Management
and Ancient
Vedic
Management
Discover the
Fabrics of
Immortality
in the
G.SAIKRISHNA, M.B.A
Management
DIRECTOR OF YUVA FOUNDATION
MANAGEMENT
Expression of Veda and the Vedic Literature
Vedic
Management
displayed in the
blossoming of a
beautiful lotus on
the ground of a
muddy pond
G.SAIKRISHNA,
The Guiding Light of the Discovery of Veda and the Vedic Literature in
Vedic Management
-- Maharshi
One of the most important human activities is managing. The basic unity of a society is
the individual. But no individual can satisfy all his desires himself. Therefore, he units
with his fellow beings and works in an organized group to achieve what he cannot
achieve individually. There are several types of organized groups, example, and family;
wherever there is an organized group of people working towards a common goal some
there is some one to manage its activities. It is not difficult to realize the consequences of
Management has become a part and parcel in everyday life, be it at home, office, factory,
Government, or in any other organization where a group of human beings assemble for a
common purpose, management principles come into play through their various facets like
• Administration Of Business
The organizing and controlling of the affairs of a business or a sector of a business
• Managers As Group
Managers and employers considered collectively, especially the directors and executives
of a business or organization.
Management is a systematic way of doing all activities in any field of human effort. It is
about keeping oneself engaged in interactive relationship with other human beings in the
course of performing one's duty. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance,
work, achieving goals, meaning of work, attitude towards work, nature of individual,
decision making, planning etc., are all discussed in the VEDAS with a sharp insight and
finest analysis to drive through our confused grey matter making it highly eligible to
From the pre-historic days of aborigines to the present day of robots and computers the
ideas of managing available resources have been in existence in some form or other.
When the world has become a big global village now, management practices have
become more complex and what was once considered a golden rule is now thought to be
an anachronism.
For management to be successful and free from problems it has to be systematic and
scientific. For it to be scientific it must conform to the theories of modern science. For
anything to be in conformity with all the theories of all disciplines of modern science, it
must be Vedic, which means it must be in full accord with natural law.
Vedic means pertaining to Veda. The Vedas are the collection of mantras. The word Veda
is derived from the Sanskrit root “VID” which means “knowledge”, hence the Vedas are
The Vedic literatures is an age – old literature of India. It has been preserved generation,
from parents to children, in the Vedic families of India. It should not be regarding to any
religious (i.e. HINDU, MUSLIM, CHRISTIAN, SIKKU, etc.). Vedic literatures are the
ancient science (i.e. Physics, chemistry, mathematics, physiology, etc...). Vedic literatures
were discovered by Rishi (Ancient Scientist, they had discovered the laws of universal)
The Vedas were revealed with the creation of universe and human beings. According to
the Vedic astrological calculations it comes out to be (1,97,29,49,088) one thousand nine
hundred seventy two millions nine hundred forty nine thousand eighty- eight years. And
according to cosmologists also, the age of creation of universe come out to be about two
thousand million years by different modern dating techniques. This is in conformity with
the Vedic astrological calculations put forward by Sami Dayanand Saraswathi about the
The creation of the Vedas has been accepted as 1,400 years B.C. by Hogg, Whitney, 4,00
B.C. by Jacoby, N.B. Pavagi in “ Vedic Father of Geology “ has accepted the creation
period of the Vedas two lakh forty thousand years, (2,40,000). There are several evidence
in Vedic literatures both ancient and modern, that Vedas are since the creation of
universe. First the knowledge should be in the beginning of creation as it clear from the
query of a human being in Rig-Veda. It says, “I know not fully what iam in reality for iam
placed within the wander with fettered mind; when I will be able to attain to the
primordial product of the eternal law, than and than only I will obtain a share of this
Further, “The God who enlightens the enlightened and introduced knowledge and virtue
to the scholars as sweets to sweet lovers and who later on revealed Divine knowledge
worth contemplation and adoption by soul – the master of sensitive organs. (RV. 10.54.6)
In Mahabharata, it reads thus – With the creation of universe, God revealed such a
unique, eternal and Divine knowledge of the Vedas which had neither beginning nor end;
and all sorts of knowledge and activities in the world followed it later on.
Despite of a Christian missionary’s approach. Max Muller confessed that Rig-Veda is the
oldest book. He writes in the introduction of Rig-Veda thus. “After the latest researches
into the history and chronology of the book of old testament. We may now safely call the
Rig Veda the oldest book, not only of Aryan community, but of the whole world”.
The Vedas are four only (i.e. Rig Veda, Yajurveda, samaveda and Atharvaveda. These
Vedas are the collection mantras God himself revealed the Vedic mantras. God
Performs Yagya every day, recites samaveda hymns, know and instructs Vedas according
to the true spirit of the mantra; who is well versed with satva, rajaj, tamas and their
relationships, has attained SIDDHI or perfection by his own penance and remains
“a Rishi is one who possesses true knowledge and preaches the same to others
The Rishi was the first savant and expert who by virtue of his deep meditation and
enhance had revealed the true spirit of the mantra or group of mantras in their literal,
metaphysical and spiritual sense, and had further explained the same in details to other
and exploration on the true meaning of his mantra, later scholars associated his name
This experience was not, Rishis’s asserts, on the level of thinking, or theoretical
conjecture, or imagination, but on the level of direct experience, which is more vivid, that
Management is required to plan, organize, coordinate and control the affairs of the
organization. It brings the human and material resources together and motivates the
Organizations and management systems have been there since the beginning of human
society. Even when man was a food gatherer and cave dweller, he realized his fraitly, the
dangers to which he was beset. He looked around him and drew lessons from their
behavior patterns. And cogent thinking and analysis led him to form groups, for he had
realized that he could not do everything by himself. And groups needed to be managed
The basic unity of a society is the individual. But no individual can satisfy all his desires
himself. Therefore, he units with his fellow beings and works in an organized group to
achieve what he cannot achieve individually. There are several types of organized groups,
example, family, a lay group, a work group, a school, a business firm, a government etc.
wherever there is an organized group of people working towards a common goal, some
European roots. Historically modern management has developed as a discipline over the
past couple of centuries. The first organizations of consequence in Europe an America,
and military institutions. From these came the initial concepts of leadership, the chain of
command, coordination, control and functional specialization. The Roman Empire and
.By the sixteenth century, the Roman Empire was long gone – but the Church remained –
however, simply outdistanced its capacity to sustain them when in that century and next
two, the meaning it provided dimmed because of the challenge pose by the growth of
science and mercantilism. The ensuing turmoil permitted the gradual emergence of
nation- sates with government’s capable of providing many social and military services.
Machiavelli, in the sixteenth century, was one of the first to consider management as a
function separate from moral law by advancing an amoral theory for the organization of
state practice.
The coming of the machine age was the next major event in shaping western views of
man, Organization and society. The industrial revolution, with its stress on mass
production, diminished the importance of the skilled trades and the social affiliations
obtained through them. The emergence of the concept of “Factors of Production” (land,
labour and capital) had revolutionary implications for the western view of humankind.
Humans (the labour content) were no longer regarded as an inextricable part of the
organic whole of society, Rather, the person as labourer, became an objectified and
at work
In the nineteenth century modern managers use many of the practices, principles, and
techniques developed from earlier concepts and experiences. The Industrial Revolution
brought about the emergence of large-scale business and its need for professional
managers. Early military and church organizations provided the leadership models.
Henri Fayol (1841--1925), known as the Father of Modern Management, was a French
and Industrial Management. His five functions of managers were plan, organize,
Mary Parker Follett's concepts included the universal goal, the universal principle, and
communications). Law of the Situation emphasizes that there is no one best way to do
efficiency perspective is concerned with creating jobs that economize on time, human
energy, and other productive resources. Jobs are designed so that each worker has a
specified, well controlled task that can be performed as instructed. Specific procedures
Company in Pittsburgh. To improve productivity, Taylor examined the time and motion
details of a job, developed a better method for performing that job, and trained the
worker. Furthermore, Taylor offered a piece rate that increased as workers produced
more.
increase worker productivity. One of his famous experiments had to do with increasing
the output of a worker loading pig iron to a rail car. Taylor broke the job down into its
smallest constituent movements, timing each one with a stopwatch. The job was
redesigned with a reduced number of motions as well as effort and the risk of error. Rest
periods of specific interval and duration and a differential pay scale were used to improve
the output. With scientific management, Taylor increased the worker's output from 12 to
47 tons per day! The Taylor model gave rise to dramatic productivity increases.
Henry Gantt developed the Gantt chart, which is used for scheduling multiple
the greater effectiveness of rewards for good work (rather than penalties for poor work).
He developed a pay incentive system with a guaranteed minimum wage and bonus
systems for people on fixed wages. Also, Gantt focused on the importance of the qualities
Bureaucracy (1864-1920),
bureaucracy as the most logical and rational structure for large organizations.
procedures, rules, and so on. Positional authority of a superior over a subordinate stems
from legal authority. Charismatic authority stems from the personal qualities of an
individual. Efficiency in bureaucracies comes from: (1.) clearly defined and specialized
functions; (2.) use of legal authority; (3.) hierarchical form; (4.) written rules and
technical expertise; (7.) promotions based on competence; (8.) clearly defined career
paths.
Frank (1868-1924) and Lillian (1878-1972) Gilbreth
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth emphasized method by focusing on identifying the elemental
motions in work, the way these motions were combined to form methods of operation,
and the basic time each motion took. They believed it was possible to design work
methods whose times could be estimated in advance, rather than relying upon
observation-based time studies. Frank Gilbreth, known as the Father of Time and Motion
Studies, filmed individual physical labor movements. This enabled the manager to break
down a job into its component parts and streamline the process. His wife, Lillian
Gilbreth, was a psychologist and author of The Psychology of Work. In 1911 Frank
Gilbreth wrote Motion Study and in 1919 the couple wrote Applied Motion Study. Frank
and Lillian had 12 children. Two of their children, Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine
One of Frank Gilbreth's first studies concerned bricklaying. (He had worked as an
bending and reaching which increased output over 100 per cent. However, unions resisted
his improvements, and most workers persisted in using the old, fatiguing methods.
The Gilbreths believed that there was one best way to perform an operation. However,
this "one best way" could be replaced when a better way was discovered. The Gilbreths
defined motion study as dividing work into the most fundamental elements possible,
studying those elements separately and in relation to one another; and from these studied
elements, when timed, building methods of least waste. They defined time study as a
searching scientific analysis of methods and equipment used or planned in doing a piece
of work, development in practical detail of the best way of doing it, and determination of
the time required. The Gilbreths drew symbols on operator charts to represent various
elements of a task such as search, select, grasp, transport, hold, delay, and others. They
When Chester Barnard retired as the CEO of New Jersey Bell Telephone, he recorded his
insights about management in his book, Functions of the Executive. It outlined the
legitimacy of the supervisor's directives and the extent of the subordinates' acceptance.
He developed the concepts of strategic planning and the acceptance theory of authority.
Strategic planning is the formulation of major plans or strategies, which guide the
organization in pursuit of major objectives. Barnard taught that the three top functions of
the executive were to (l) establish and maintain an effective communication system, (2)
hire and retain effective personnel, and (3) motivate those personnel. His Acceptance
Theory of Authority states that managers only have as much authority as employees
allow them to have. The acceptance theory of authority suggests that authority flows
depends on four conditions. (1.) Employees must understand what the manager wants
them to do. (2.) Employees must be able to comply with the directive. (3.) Employees
must think that the directive is in keeping with organizational objectives. (4.) Employees
must think that the directive is not contrary to their personal goals. Barnard believed that
each person has a zone of indifference or a range within each individual in which he or
she would willingly accept orders without consciously questioning authority. It was up to
the organization to provide sufficient inducements to broaden each employee's zone of
Classical School
The Classical school of thought began around 1900 and continued into the 1920s.
set of structuring guidelines, such as rules and procedures, hierarchy, and a clear division
of labor. Scientific management focuses on the "one best way" to do a job. Administrative
Behavioral or human relations management emerged in the 1920s and dealt with the
human aspects of organizations. It has been referred to as the neoclassical school because
The human relations movement began with the Hawthorne Studies which were conducted
from 1924 to 1933 at the Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric Company in Cicero,
Illinois.
Systems Theory
During the 1940s and World War II, systems analysis emerged. This viewpoint uses
and other related fields to solve problems. Managers find optimal solutions to
management problems by using scientific analysis which is closely associated with the
elements functioning as a whole. It is an open system that interacts with its environment.
processes), outputs of those finished goods into the environment (products or services),
and feedback (reactions from the environment). Subsystems are systems within a broader
work toward synergy in an attempt to accomplish an organizational goal that could not
condition in which the combined and coordinated actions of the parts of a system achieve
more than all the parts could have achieved acting independently. Entropy is the process
Beginning in the early 1950s, the human resources school represented a substantial
progression from human relations. The behavioral approach did not always increase
productivity. Thus, motivation and leadership techniques became a topic of great interest.
The human resources school understands that employees are very creative and competent,
and that much of their talent is largely untapped by their employers. Employees want
meaningful work; they want to contribute; they want to participate in decision making
Contingency View
In the mid-1960s, the contingency view of management or situational approach emerged.
This view emphasizes the fit between organization processes and the characteristics of
the situation. It calls for fitting the structure of the organization to various possible or
chance events. It questions the use of universal management practices and advocates
deal with various circumstances. The contingency approach assumes that managerial
Systems theory and a contingency view can help integrate the theories of management.
conditions. A broad perspective is valuable to managers when overseeing one unit or the
Reengineering the organization redesigns the processes that are crucial to customer
satisfaction.
Globalization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has used the term management in
- as a process; and
- as a discipline.
When used as a noun, management refers to all those persons who are concerned with
When used as a process, management refers to all that a manager does. The various
functions, which are performed by managers to make the efficient use of the available
material and human resources so as to achieve the desired objectives, are summed up as
management.
Sometimes the term “management” is used to cannot neither the activity not the
subject of study
(Veda) and its infinite organizing power- management that is supported by the holistic
value of Natural law and the innumerable specific value of Natural law- all the laws of
nature discovered by the objective approach of modern science and through subjective
approach of Vedic science- it is in full accord with all the knowledge of the Laws of
management because all systems of management derive their policies and procedures
from the theories of economy, production, and sales, but they are not fully in accord with
all the Laws of Nature that manage the order and evolution in the galactic universe. This
is the reason why all the existing systems of management are prone to problems of
origin right from the beginning of civilization. Efficient management techniques were
upon the infinite creativity of the infinite organizing power of the holistic value of
Natural law lively in Rk Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama Veda, Atharva Veda, and, at the same
time, spontaneously draws upon the enormous creativity of the specific laws of Nature
that constitute the thirty – six values of the Vedic Literature – 4 +36 = 40.
These forty values of intelligence, displayed in the forty values of Vedic literature with
their divisions and subdivisions, constitute the forty qualities of intelligence – the basis of
the forty values of the human physiology. Thus it is clear that Vedic management
harnesses the infinite organizing power of total Natural Law from the level of Vedic
consciousness.
In this context the Bhagavad Gita expounded thousands of years ago by the Super
harmonious and blissful state of affairs as against conflicts, tensions, lowest efficiency
and least productivity, absence of motivation and lack of work culture etc common to
most of the enterprises today. Bhagavad Gita provides solutions to various management
problems.
administration of the country. When one looks at the Indian history, we find that various
kings adopted efficient project management techniques to construct temples, places and
landmarks. The big temple at Thanjavur and Tamilnadu speaks of the project
Similarly, the history of the western civilization also provides us with lot of examples of
Sphinx of Egypt describe how various resources of men and material were efficiently
employed.
“Management implies substitution of exact scientific investigation and knowledge for the
no: ); Vedic monument is problem – free, orderly management – equally nourishing to all
The Vedic consciousness of the manager is the basis of Vedic management; which is in
full accord with the management of the universe through Natural law, which handles the
unlimited management of the universe with perfect order and harmony, supporting
India for thousands of years, and even now the momentum of foreign influence is
ineffective
The benefit of Vedic management is that while attending to any one part, its influences is